Embrace the Sea
by Kunshi Sekijou
Summary: One shot. A simple evening stroll and a curious little question. Mild Akaya x Yanagi.


**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.**

**A/N:** Inspired by "Penguin's Paradise," a _Gundam Wing_ doujinshi.

**NOTES:** Mild, almost non-existent Akaya x Yanagi. Analytical conversation. May be confusing. Akaya POV.

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><p><strong>Embrace the Sea<strong>

Evening.

By the time they reached to the seashore, the once orange sunset already darkened to navy blue dusk.

It became their hobby now, a single hobby that two different people like them were able to share. That was, to take long strolls in the cool summer evenings to the seashore near where they lived.

The once crowded seashore was deserted when they arrived. But that did not matter to them.

They tread through the sand, breathing in the dense, salty ancient infinity (1) that told of the evolved life lurking beneath the dark depths. They watched the foamy navy waves rush to shore, sweeping up handful grains of sand and depositing it back in the sea.

His senpai stopped suddenly. He halted as well.

"What's up, Yanagi-senpai?"

His senpai appeared to be lost in his sea scrutiny, as if important data hid themselves in the curves and coils of the waves.

After a short silence, the other finally spoke in that deep, quiet voice, enticing him the same way the sound of the waves washing the shore did.

"Do you know why so many people gather at the seashore in the summer?"

"Huh?" He cocked his head. His senpai had a tendency of asking random questions at random moments that caught him off guard.

He still wasn't used to such moments.

"Life began in the sea, Akaya."

"..." He did not ask the other to explain his words this time. Instead, he gave him his attention, like he always did when he suspected that the other had something to say. He became as engrossed as a child expecting a bedtime story.

"Because life began in the sea, perhaps one day all life will return to it."

Yanagi continued. "For now, some people are just homesick. That is why they come here in the summer."

"What about those people who are afraid of water?" Akaya interrupted. "You know, like childhood drama."

Yanagi raised an eyebrow. "Trauma, you mean."

"...Yeah! That's it! Trauma!" Akaya scratched his head, feeling somewhat silly.

Yanagi's gaze turned back to the horizon. "Like all organisms that have evolved and lost their initial traits, perhaps those who come to repel the sea have already lost their instincts to return to it. Because they are used to life on land, there is no homesickness when they come close to the sea that is no longer their home."

"Then, what about you, Yanagi-senpai?" He asked. "Are you a land person or are you a sea person?"

This time, Yanagi did not answer him.

Instead, he bent to pull off his sneakers and socks and allowed his toes to curl around the loose, scratchy consistency. He stepped toward the ceaseless waves rolling in and out of the land. Never once did he turn back.

The water advanced, engulfing his footprints. It was as if he never made his way to the water. It was as if he emerged from the sea as a newborn soul.

He watched the tide rise, and crash down upon his senpai, soaking him entirely.

But the other did not run, did not dodge the water; he allowed the sea to drench him.

When the tide retreated again, it brought away the labels he stuck on his senpai's personality all this time: rational and proper.

Besides answering his question, this was what his senpai wanted to demonstrate to him as well.

Like the people who forsaken the land for the sea the one season out of the entire year, his senpai abandoned his image of logical perfection now, during this one rare and fleeting moment.

Now that his senpai found his home, the home he would return to one day, he thought about his own preference between the land and the sea.

He stared at his senpai still. His senpai currently in the sea's embrace. It appealed to him like an inviting picture. Or maybe it was his homesickness contributing to this feeling of anticipation, of wanting to join the other.

He, too, was a sea person.

But he did not merely want to return to the sea.

He, more than anything, as he watched his senpai throw his head back to enjoy rivulets run down his auburn strands, wanted to become like the sea.

If he became like the sea, if he became taller, if his shoulders grew wider, and his arms longer and stronger, then he could embrace the other like the sea embraced him now.

As the other claimed he would eventually return to the sea, the place his senpai would return to would only be his embrace.

His embrace, like the all-encompassing sea.

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><p>(1) Credit goes to <strong>dan b<strong> on Yahoo for this special description.


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